A Court of Heart and Fealty | Rhysand

Chapter 54: Over the Edge

Chapter 54: Over the Edge

Galadriel stretched, yawning like a cat in front of the vanity mirror. She caught Rhysand's watchful eyes in the reflection wandering over her body. They were readying themselves for morning training on the rooftop at the House of Wind. It had been far too many days since she'd trained and she knew Cassian would make her pay for it. Rhysand, when she mentioned it last night after Mor's visit, decided he would join. It would be their first outing together as a mated pair, and a small gathering with his family seemed the perfect occasion to properly publicise it.

"Take a good look, High Lord," she grumbled. "This body will be bruised and swollen and beaten in just an hour."

He went back to doing up his belt, the muscles in his stomach flexing. "It will be the other way around if I know my brothers. If they know me."

Shrugging on an Illyrian leather jacket, stiff with thick sections over her chest and shoulders that hadn't yet been broken into, Galadriel turned to face him properly. "Are you saying there's a chance Cassian might go easy on me?" If she could only hope.

Rhys contemplated the idea for a moment. "I think that he wouldn't want to, but it won't be wise so near our mating to put you in any image of threat." Knocking her fumbling fingers away from a buckle at her side, he tightened the straps himself. "I'm the first amongst us to have a mate, so it's untested waters what any of us will do."

Galadriel studied his face. "That scares you, doesn't it?" She couldn't help but laugh. "Here I am worrying about sore muscles, and you're fretting over whether you're going to tear your brothers' faces off."

He pinched her waist. "I have more restraint than you're crediting me more. I'm not stopping you from training with Cassian, just settling for a very stern lecture before he can touch you."

"Oh, not one of your lectures!" she bellowed, throwing herself away as theatrically as she could. He scowled. She laughed. Aiming for the vanity again, Galadriel smiled at the sight resting atop it. Her things. Nick-knacks she kept around her room, the brass sculptor of a tree that her necklaces and bracelets hung from, the scarf hung over the silver hook of the mirror's frame. Taking a band, she tied her hair into a braid, further wrapping it into a bun.

Her eyes dropped from her reflection to the silver ring sitting in a small basin, the two ends curling like vines around a tiny diamond, the pale green and red gemstones. Fingering the band, she contemplated wearing Azriel's gift. Cassian would only tell her to take it off anyway.

Turning, Galadriel caught Rhys's eyes snapping from the ring to her face. He smiled. "Ready?"

~

Rhysand had been wrong. So utterly and horrifyingly wrong. Galadriel thought something had to have burst inside of her, her lungs burning, and the hoarse sound of her pants was something she could only liken to a dying elk. But Cassian had clearly thought his plan for that morning through, performing her usual stretches and routines in plain sight of Azriel and her mate before taking her away, forcing her up and down the stairs at a rapid pace where there was no one to witness the torture.

The muscles in her thighs had melted into goo and Galadriel haphazardly fell against the stone wall, sliding down it until the morning sun beat down on her face. The winter air did nothing to relieve the ache in her throat as she tried to gather enough energy to protest Cassian's call for her to stand back up.

He knelt at her side, arms crossed on his thigh. "How'd that feel?"

Unable to speak proper sentences, Galadriel coughed out a string of half-words that included at least two profanities. Sweat caught in her eye, making her wince and blink it out. Chortling, Cassian slipped an arm under her, righting her enough to lean against the stone mountainside. He took both her hands in his, stretching them above her head, opening her lungs.